3346. In order that I might know these things, and know them with certainty, of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me for several years to speak almost constantly with spirits and angels; and with spirits (that is, with the angels of the first heaven)* in their own speech; also at times with the angels of the second heaven in their speech; but the speech of the angels of the third heaven has only appeared to me as a radiation of light, in which there was perception from the flame of good within it.
* The "Heaven of Good Spirits" is a term used by Swedenborg for the First Heaven. The expression is found (or is indicated) in the early volumes of the Arcana Coelestia, as for instance in n. 459, 684, 925, 978, 1642, 1752. The reader should remember in this connection that the Arcana Coelestia was written and published before the Last Judgment of 1757.
